Duke Nukem 3D - ALL 40 Levels Ranked from Best to Worst

foreign [Music] seems to be talked about more so as a cultural phenomenon than as a video game series especially in modern mainstream gaming media I've seen games journalists and the like suggest that a new Duke Nukem game just wouldn't fly these days due to the baggage that comes along with his character specifically the one portrayed by John St John since 1995. but why does this conversation even crop up it's almost taken for granted that Duke Nukem was arguably at one point the king of the first person shooter and as long-standing fans of Duke will know there has only been one game that and Duke that title and it's not the one that came out in 2011. Nukem 3D is one of those games that is just so easy to come back to over and over again while Duke himself was one of the most iconic FPS protagonists of all time it's a consistently high quality gameplay that makes the game worth playing close to 30 years later that's why I've decided to focus on the levels themselves in place of Duke's bravado and rank each of the 40 that shipped with Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition in order from best to worst I'll cover each level in order of appearance and reveal its ranking alongside levels I've already ranked on either side ranking of these levels may be realized just how close many of them are in terms of quality so understand that even levels Rank 10 places apart May both be extremely fun to play with that said hope you enjoyed the video we start off with one of the most iconic opening levels of any FPS game of all time Hollywood Holocaust it's been remade by fans in so many other games and for good reason it does everything an opening level should do within seconds of the level starting the player is immediately aware of the setting and is free to choose when to drop down from the rooftop and enter the action with their trusty Glock once you drop down the game is immediately dropping breadcrumbs for the player to follow an assault Trooper will fire at you from a box which if followed will lead to an RPG Hidden out of sight on a nearby ledge from here another enemy fires out of a fake window which informs the player that if bullets could come out of that window perhaps Duke himself can go in it's barely been 30 seconds and the game is encouraging players to explore and not assume a space is as Barren as it appears at first glance the next secret is not so obvious to new players but I'm sure most of us eventually figured out that you can blow up this wall with the RPG to provide an entirely different way of approaching the level 3D Realms didn't play it safe with the opener by allowing the player this much freedom but it's certainly paid off with the Legacy Hollywood Holocaust has left behind from here the player will find themselves in a theater and it's accompanying Lobby bathroom and projection booth all of which have been taken over by aliens in addition to the assault Troopers are the pig cups which are a nasty introduction for newbies when only equipped with the Glock fortunately most players will either have the shotgun or RPG on hand after the initial two are introduced aside from the plentiful Secrets there are also a couple of humorous inclusions like the assault Trooper who flushes just as you open the cubicle door on him and Duke's line when you use one of the arcade machines to open a compartment in the wall I don't have time to play with myself the level wraps up shortly after after a couple of pig cups blow open a wall as if to remind the player that explosions are going to be a regular occurrence from here on out we're introduced to Duke's customary exit to a level in which he smashes an auto destruct button and I doubt many wanted to stop playing the game by this point oh red light district feels like an extension of Hollywood Holocaust and for the most part carries on the impressive form of the first map I feel like I'm in the same block of City buildings that I was navigating in E1 M1 which is worth noting as few FBS titles have this sense of progression from level to level before Duke 3D the level itself is great fun you have access to the shotgun from the previous map but ammo isn't exactly plentiful early on so the Glock may require a few appearances in the opening stages the texturing of the magazines and what I assume are VHS is on the shelves is quaint but captures the time and place superbly all the same at the back of the shop is an elevator which takes you up to the blue key room new enemies spawn in to give us a fight against the backdrop of Nukem must die it's a little touch but damn just help add personality to your foes and give the impression of a living world you're traversing the blue key lets us demolish this set of skyscrapers revealing the yellow key and an optional sewer area not much to note about this secret aside from a bunch of goodies I almost feel like this could have loot back into other parts of the level if the game had a bit more time in the oven this bar area is another showing off of the build engine's capabilities with interactivity Galore most notably the pool table with the most low quality balls I've ever seen in my life there are more immersive decorative elements here such as the beer bottles wine rack and a chase scene on the small TV mimicking a live news broadcast gameplay wise if you've collected the RPG by now which you definitely should have there are some good opportunities to get value for each rocket like so lastly it's the infamous strip club assault Troopers and pig cups are swimming the dance floor but with a few RPG shots they'll be easily dealt with the pedestals act as handy cover and before you know it we're heading for the back exit that is until we're captured in a room-sized cage which is honestly extremely effective but makes me wonder why they don't just kill Duke right there on the spot I guess that might make the game a little short when I first started this video I never thought of episode 1 overly fondly that sounds harsh but I play this episode so many times as a kid because it was the least intimidating that I've just grown a little tired of it well that's what I thought until I reached death row this is just classic mid-90s level design you start off in an electric chair which apparently only gives Duke a light grazing as long as he doesn't spend all day in it most noteworthy is the fact that you're unarmed this was a massive call made by the designers as far as I'm concerned killing a pig cup with your Mighty foot isn't exactly hard for a seasoned veteran of build engine games but damn it's not exactly easy nor fun if you are relatively new to the FPS genre and still getting to grips with it once you reveal the hidden shotgun and open a way out the rest of the level keeps a steady Pace as most good Duke 3D levels do there's a memorable miniature Church where we see some toggleable colored lighting and can our first OCTA brain and hopefully find a doom Easter egg that's one doomed Space Marine shortly after we find the blue key and the level really opens up much like E1 M1 death row does a great job of feeling both like a real place in this case a prism compound as well as creating a clever interconnected layout that prevents excessive backtracking there is actually a real benefit to using the security terminals a tadmill exploration is required than in the first two levels so being shown that these two buttons deactivate these two force fields is of great convenience to the player the use of trick mines provides some novelty especially if you're able to bait Pig cops to run straight through them I also like this central control room where an Overlord hologram taunts Duke over the radio upon arrival adding just enough character to the enemy that you've been blasting so far the worst part of this level would have to be this outside area with several turrets and two Recon Patrol Vehicles if you want 100 kills whichever method you end up choosing to take all these guys out will be tedious especially thanks to the degree of vertical aiming required and how the build engine warps the world and Sprite based objects the only other frustration new players may have is locating the slightly hidden path to the exit area behind this poster but the level is certainly nowhere near as maze-like as other FPS games with the era so it's nothing unreasonable we are introduced the concept of swimming in this final area and if you didn't like this five seconds of time spent underwater it's probably best player to uninstall right about now toxic dump doesn't do itself Justice with its name I mean it's a literal toxic dump but that's an underselling of some of the more unique aspects of the level death row ended with Duke being forced to swim and toxic dump takes off the floaties by forcing the player to escape from their sinking submarine upon spawning once out we're greeted with even more water and a healthy amount of OCTA brains one thing I always loved about Duke 3D was the muffling effect on all sounds while the player is underwater strangely the pistol sounds twice as powerful whereas the chain gun Cannon sounds like a toy by comparison above the surface is a guarded entrance to the toxic dump facility there's a bunker of assault Troopers combined with these irritating turrets there's also some cheaply placed ones on opposite sides of this blue key card that deserve nothing less than devastated to the face unfortunately we don't have that weapon yet inside the facility are tons of pig cups to the extent where at times I was holding a mouse one with the shotgun as though it was fully auto once the coast is clear we get to experience some Innovative product of its time build engine puzzles you let yourself get carried by a canister Grabber so that you can gain the orange keycard which allows you to unlock this shrink ray in the wall another build engine trick this shrinks Duke to the size of his finger so that he can get to this other room which then unlocks the previously inaccessible half of the dump we're back in the water and the OCTA brains are starting to get a little old unfortunately 3D Realms disagreed and they spammed them from here to the end of the level with a couple of button presses the water level increases giving us access to this rocky area which is home to yet another button to open up yet another door kudos to the security camera here for showing me what was opened the up to brains are back and my patience is starting to wear thin episode 1 functioned as the shareware episode for Duke 3D so the enemy and weapon roster limitations really hamper the latter stages despite the layouts being quite realistic and creative for the time after a minor button based platforming puzzle we are greeted by another steady stream of opt brains this time above the water which leads to two exits blow up this crack in the wall to gain access to the first secret level launch facility or follow the toxic sludge all the way to the end to exit the level normally and enter the abyss while there are some neat gimmicks throughout toxic dump the shooting that we're all here for wears a bit thin and could really have used another enemy type or 2 to break up the combat flow launch facility is somewhat basic compared to the non-secret levels in episode 1 but I still have a good time with it while it lasts it's short filled with easy enemies to stump and the theme is simple yet well depicted it is what it says on the tin a facility housing a series of control rooms which eventually lead you to the launch site of a rocket charmingly created within the limitations of the build engine your access is restricted so the name of the game is repeatedly flicking switches to turn off force fields until you've reached the rocket the combat encounters are straightforward you should be absolutely loaded for ammo on all the weapons so you can really pick and choose which guns you feel like using if you're looking for a challenge you likely won't find it here well I don't have many complaints it's not a particularly ambitious or memorable level so I feel compelled to place it pretty low down the list oh the final level of episode 1 the abyss goes big but doesn't quite stick the landing on the one hand I can see why this may rate highly in some people's eyes the abyss is huge in size and pulls off the aesthetic of a Barren Canyon positioned on the San Andreas fault very well this is far from a linear level which should be admired but it's also what makes the abyss a bit of a dull play through there are dead ends backtracking platforming and a shrink puzzle to solve before the player can locate the battle Lord these aren't necessarily all bad points on their own but the rock textures present throughout are so samey it's hard not to get lost or at the very least tired from the lack of variety continuing the criticisms of previous episode 1 levels the enemy variety is limited and presents little challenge there are also Health pickups all over the place you'll be hard-pressed to fall below 100 HP your main obstacle would be finding it where to go it's easy to overlook a gap in between two rocks and instead run around in circles thinking you've explored every possible option the platforming is hardly going to get you killed but having your aim reset to eye level every time you fall from a high ledge is unnecessary pain especially when enemies are around the environmental destruction once you activate the earthquake is a creative way of opening up the second half of the level it's just a shame that it only leads to more tan colored Rock textures on the other side eventually you'll reach the hidden layer of the battle Lord the boss of episode 1 who makes a typically explosive build engine entrance into the arena I used to have nightmares about this guy when I was a kid but he's not hard to defeat at all if you're well stocked up he will alternate between his chain gun and grenade launcher attacks if you have lots of health and a spare Med kit you're in luck just keep your distance strafe and fire your RPG until he dies a disappointing conclusion to an episode that started so well foreign be accessed through cheats in the atomic edition of jig 3D that I'm using for this video the 20th anniversary edition added a secret level exit to the abyss which lets you access it with all of your gear with a pistol start you're almost solely reliant on the shrink ray because as you can see it's a level of Sentry battle Lords only I'm a sucker for symmetry but that doesn't save what is essentially a gimmick level with pixelated photos of the developers placed in each of the four weapon rooms that can be teleported into once you take out all the Sentry battle Lords you grab the blue key and open up a room with cheaply placed laser trip bombs navigate that open up one final room with the last century battle Lord shrink him and you're done there's no actual exit here since this is warp only in the original release but they added one in the 20th anniversary edition overall the worst map by a mile so far should probably have stayed warp only no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no take I really like lunar apocalypse there are certain environments and games that I like and space is one of my favorites so I'll probably be kinder to this episode than most Duke fans would as for Spaceport itself it's neat and tidy you'll take damage after spawning if you don't move out of the way of these rockets that hit the hull of the ship you boarded on directly behind you is a teleporter pilot Bay which just so happens to have an RPG inside it hopefully you won't need it as the strength of the enemies is still relatively low despite the introduction of the enforcer and Sentry drone the enforcers can hit hard if you stand out in the open too long which makes them good candidates for the shotgun the Sentry drone only shows up on its own thankfully design wise the secrets are implemented really well you can almost fall into them by accident especially if you're using the jetpack my personal highlight is the semi-open column full far enough and you'll land in a pool of water containing the orange keycard breaking your fall fly a little and you find yourself in one room fly further and you're back in the room you likely drop down from fly further still and you can acquire the Devastator and an atomic health there's even a lookout with a large Med kit if you still haven't had enough vertical flying it's a fantastic implementation of a vertical Hub that seamlessly connects so many areas of the level together the only downsides of Spaceport I'd say are the lack of genuine wow moments like Hollywood Holocaust has as well as how small it is in its scope Spaceport doesn't try hard but it's allowed to as an introduction to the space Arc of Juke 3D I find it hard to separate the gameplay from the music and incubator the letter of which does a great job of matching the creepy and unsettling dark rooms on offer thank you the first door you open is the first sign of lunar apocalypse's most infamous design faults the century during spam lighting is a key feature throughout incubator most rooms are dark when first entered and enemies are mostly hidden with the dark corners of rooms it's nice for the night vision goggles to actually get some use and not just sit in my inventory special mention to the distracting yet effective strobe lighting and how the lights on this entry drone seem to eye you off from the Shadows the level eventually brightens up and we have a small infested water section with alien corruption sprawling throughout we're introduced to the protozoid slimers which usually present no threat but are definitely an annoyance due to their weird hitbox and face hugging ability if they do happen to get within touching distance OCTA brain spam returns after its brief Hiatus but hopefully your Arsenal's loaded with the shrink ray freeze thrower RPG and Devastator to compensate so any combat encounters by this stage should be a breeze what factor is when I imagine a lot of people started to get worried about the direction Duke Nukem 3D was heading in the first room is a Sentry drone trap how clever well apparently a lot cleverer than we the players realized because the designers repeat this trick several times before the exit is reached the worst offender of all is this room that stores a portable Med kit where I kind of encounter how many Sentry drones are waiting to home in on you taking these out one by one is pure pain and no this is not as bad as it gets in lunar apocalypse the blue key can be found in this area that used to be a room that explodes before you can reach it I don't know why it explodes but it's a good excuse for some much needed verticality and a deviation from the mostly spotless space station for some reason there are barely any enemies to fight I know the room just exploded but this is a Cheesy mid-90s FPS surely no excuses needed to spawn some in regardless there is lots of health around so surviving isn't really an issue so long as you're wary of Sentry drone traps the rest of the level can be found opposite the blue key area on the other side of this laser tripline trap we then find our first assault commanders who should pose a challenge but we have been given a truckload of shrink ray ammo which trivializes all enemies except for surprise surprise the Sentry drones to find the yellow key you'll need to Traverse these narrow corridors which offer some Moody colored lighting to set the tone of enemies popping out from behind obstacles after collecting the key enemies spawn in on the way back but the shrink ray continues to be too strong and ammo plentiful to ignore using I actually think this is a shame because there would be a lot more attention to the shooting without it the last highlight of the level is this view of planet Earth once the window is opened something about the way the light fills the room is just so satisfying and such old technology there we go I'm still not sure what I think of fusion station it's Unique I'll give it that there are a few levels in Duke 3D that let you skip half the level with the jetpack which is possible here due to this huge open vertical room that connects each side of the station together there are elements of levels previous throughout the climb from the bottom floor to the top and forces are everywhere often waiting for you to walk past them before getting the jump on you and sometimes even attacking from behind flashing lights obscure your vision and work well with Duke 3D's shadow effects to create atmospheric silhouettes in the latter stages of the level there's a good chance you'll grow paranoid of whether you've truly cleared a room as you approach the next door Sentry drones as usual can cause a bit of a nuisance when they start flying below the player's feet eventually you'll find a pillar of energy that once shot sets off a series of satisfying explosions that take out enemies and open up another elevator to take you closer to the exit 90 of players will already have some jetpack fuel remaining from earlier levels but if you manage to waste it all before now be ready to attempt this jump and fail successfully by landing on this ledge with a spare jet pack there's one last assault Commander scare who can hit hard if they hit you point blank if I can say something positive about Fusion station it will keep you on your toes if you are starting to feel too comfortable all right occupied territory is tough it's quite short assuming you're not dying all the time but some of these fights are definitely the toughest so far it starts easy enough with some assault trooper and enforcer packs to work with then in typical lunar apocalypse fashion we are ambushed by Sentry drones and a few assault commanders in this interestingly shaped room they really went all out with slopes in this level and is a healthy mix of the clean sci-fi and alien corruption textures some areas like this circular room and this long travelator feel very similar to what we've seen two levels prior this time with added difficulty elements in the form of higher enemy counts and a hidden turret respectively once you obtain the orange keycard you open up one of the nastiest surprises in the entire game Duke 3D has often been criticized for its head scanners and multiple Sentry battle Lords of the epitome of this you will take damage here I choose this fight with the shrink ray because I'm a sucker for ammo conservation but it would probably have been a lot tougher having to take pot shots with the RPG one start with you gain the blue key card and eventually unlock the final room within forces and two more Sentry battle Lords guarding the exit this time they're stationary and further away which should be a singed compared to the previous fight take them out and the level is over unless you spot this button which you can shoot to find the secret level exit foreign [Applause] for another build engine gimmick rotating floors there are worse ideas for a secret level than a circular arena with enemies flying around the perimeter maybe I mean E2 M9 and doom exists after all I think my biggest pet peeve with spin cycle is that even enemies that aren't touching the ground seem to be impacted by the direction that the floor below them is moving in it feels like you're chasing the enemies more than they're chasing you which doesn't make for great gameplay there are four switches on the outside of the level that open up monster closets on the inside of the rotating platform so the player is given control of how many monsters they want to deal with at once each contain a combination of assault Troopers assault commanders and Sentry drones strafe deal with the Sentry drones first shrink the commanders and you should be set once you unlock the center two Sentry battle Lords drop down to Ambush you shrink both and you're done thankfully no no no no [Applause] no no Tiberius station feels like lunar apocalypse's turn shift the music becomes more rock-like and the rooms are less constricted and dark air vents are used to great effect to give the player multiple ways of navigating the level although despite this Tiberia station does feel quite linear on the whole it's mostly the usual assault trooper and enforcer mobs throughout although there are a couple of frustrating Sentry drones that manage to dive on me in doorways most Duke 3D levels thus far have had some kind of build engine Tech showcase and Tiberia stations are these 45 degree angle mirrors that allow you to see around corners this allows you to see what enemies you're about to deal with as well as any environmental hazards to look out for like these explosive canisters the secret level certainly helped but ammo and health still feels a plenty in this level so once again even the masses of OCTA brains entered forces later in the level really pose no threat with the liberal use of the Devastator and Shrink Ray we are afforded the Sentry battle Lord guarded the exit gives himself away so there shouldn't be many problems here either I said I like litter apocalypse but it's really only because of a small number of fantastic levels but I think that's the case lunar reactor is right up there with the best it features a simple Central Hub that ensures you're unlikely to get lost but expands into fun and unique key hunting paths which seamlessly loop back into previously explored areas this is also a return to form for the game in terms of creating immersive lived-in locals for the player to explore like this crew quarters area the bathroom and the core reactor itself I barely have any of the usual episode 2 complaints about lunar reactor Sentry drones are used sparingly the enemy diversity is as good as it could be no combat encounters feel cheap and even the protozoid slimers are positioned cleverly throughout the many air vents this is also the best level so far in terms of variety of visuals and styles of rooms they're the standard 1.5 human height fully enclosed space Tech areas of course but there's a shallow poisonous water water that can be swam in an outdoor air vent leading into a moon-based cave and even a combination of computer tech and moon surface all-in-one my constant complaint has been challenged or lack thereof and while the shrink ray continues to be broken I think dual Sentry battle Lords in a confined space does a good enough job at forcing me to utilize the more powerful weapons foreign level of episode 2 and is a fitting send-off before we Face the overlord it starts off simple enough but soon opens up into a large station based on the moon knowing where to go is pretty easy despite the level size start by opening the only door that doesn't require a key card and keep going until you find a key card backtrack repeat it's a lot more fun than that though each area of the station has its own cable car that transports you to where all the noteworthy parts of the base are the first of these features a Trip Mine triggered earthquake and I'm going to take a guess research facility I honestly can't tell but there's a Crusher swimming pool and what looks like a morgue and overall it's a great shootout area once we get the blue key card it's onto the next cable car this time with what feels like a high proportion of enforcers here the biggest landmark is this orange lit room with a multi-part bridge that the player needs to trigger to use to reach the reactor room this can be a tricky little fight if you approach it from the bottom floor first like I did once you blow up the reactor it will just so happen to give Duke a step up to the yellow key card whoever engineered all these Tech bases must have had a thing for buff dudes platforming to vital areas the last Cable Car hidden behind the yellow key door takes us to this huge outdoor area where a swarm of Sentry drones await to causes immense pain if you haven't figured it out by now Century durines can dodge Rockets shot directly at them it's only when they're in clusters that they get a bit confused taking these guys out with hit scan weapons is a chore and is the only downside of this whole level if I'm being honest we are stocked up on every weapon so from here on out it's just shrinking the scary enemies like the Sentry battle Lord and assault Commanders you can tell that the alien presence has become much more evident as the exit looms which should tell us we're about to face a larger foe shoot this crack on the wall to reveal a passage to the secret exit my final note on dark side is its fantastic music it's so quiet and subtle relative to the rest of the soundtrack and creates such a contrast between its gentle hum and Juke the character [Music] foreign [Music] game could be something along the lines of prey 2017 or Half-Life 2 but with Duke's arrogance and boisterous one-liners stemming back the tide of Earth suppressors Lunatic Fringe is tough and I'm still not sure exactly how it works basically the whole level is a circular Arena which teleports the player to a similar looking room to give the impression of a 720 degree room total there are a couple of times where the solution breaks but it still tripped me out enforcers and assault Troopers litter the perimeter but it's inside the central room where four century battle Lords are located where you'll experience the most grief if you're not familiar with where the Sentry battle Lords are located it's easy to walk into one and get your health and armor shredded not much else to say about this one aside from the need for Duke to shrink himself to get to the exit this map was primarily made for multiplayer and it shows thankfully it's only a secret level overload gets a lot of grief but I'm not sure it's deserved the overlord himself is an absolute pushover for anyone who can sidestep but there are some decent ideas being implemented in the lead up the biggest problem unless you're a speedrunner is the layout you can accidentally skip most of the level by jumping through one air vent and missing this spinning platform which I did hear in recording despite trying to avoid the boss room what you'll miss is a Sentry battle Lord standing next to an explosive trap a couple of narrow walkways but most noteworthy of all is this room with several floors of varying Heights I enjoy its high enemy count and verticality and with the jetpack you can approach it however you like once cleared out you can flick this switch which disables a force field blocking the Newbie path to the overlord once you drop down to his lair there's a tantalizing explosive setup with unhatched protozoite slimers nearby stand in the middle and set this off so that you don't accidentally blow yourself up once the overlord comes out once you open the door to the overlord all you have to do is keep your distance and hold Mouse one with the Devastator and RPG until it dies its attacks are extremely easy to dodge and infrequent I'm not sure why this fight was made so easy I guess it was a fine line back then to strike a balance between making a game challenging while not pushing away newcomers to the FPS genre sadly it means that playthroughs of Duke 3D become a bit of an eye roll in what should be its most engaging moments the boss fights foreign the toughest opening level so far easily raw meat is a primer for the rest of shrapnel city with the way it throws large swarms of enemies at you without warning especially if you're not particularly conservative with ammo Duke's iconic bubble gum line comes just before an enforcer spawns directly in front of you Atop The Starting roof area like we saw back in Hollywood Holocaust I feel this first five seconds is a good way of forcing the player to search for goodies wherever they can find them from here the setting is more familiar with that of La meltdown but the harshness of the enemy placements even eclipsed what we saw in lunar apocalypse turrets are positioned in dark Corners enemies are consistently being spawned in around the player and resources aren't as generous as we've become accustomed to the pig cups are back too which now Mission well between the Tamers of the assault Troopers and the irritatingly unflinching enforces raw meat is also another Flawless example of explosive written levels opening back up new shortcuts into previously accessed locations reducing the TDM that games like Doom before it often exhibited get another superb opener but one that can hold its own no matter where in the episode it was placed foreign bankroll continues what raw meat started it's hit scan City and my HP was hovering in the uncomfortable Zone once I'd navigated my way through the bank vault to get there require some peekaboo with the high numbers of enforcers and pig cups guarding the bank's perimeter the environment is extremely open in parts and unless you're willing to part with some of your rare rocket ammo it's tough to deal with significant damage without receiving a hefty amount back honestly the assault Commander that shows up is a welcome rest from the hit scanners waiting to open a fire around every second corner I even tried using the hollow Duke to take some of the heat off me once I entered the bank but as usual it didn't convince the enemies in the slightest once this area housing the bank belt switch is unlocked I don't know how I did it I just pressed all the buttons a few times and somehow it opened you have this annoying Cog puzzle which I'm too ashamed to admit how long it delayed my return back to the vault door I'm giving the level negative marks for this I don't care how much of my issue is my own stupidity lastly is this encounter with two Sentry battle Lords and a bunch of OCTA brains which can turn into quite a high number if you don't manage to protect enough innocence from the explosive canisters thankfully the shrink ray is available to get the player out of yet another tight spot and through to the end [Music] [Applause] another level that Duke fans don't seem to like is flood zone I don't love it but I'd hardly call it bad I have a soft spot for build engine verticality and flood zone likes to stretch the player in both directions there is a ton of jumping when above water level or jet packing if you've saved it from the previous and a first for the game multi-floor Swimming if you're skilled with the jetpack and don't waste it all too quickly flood zone should be easier than the two levels preceding it there are a couple of nasty traps particularly involving Sentry battle Lords but there will be enough distance between player and alien to remove the risk of overwhelming damage ammo for the RPG and Devastator is plentiful and will make the long range shootouts a breeze in most cases health is also very generous though in an era where mid-air strafing was a rare skill I can see why it may have been necessary for many players back in 1996. occasionally I forget where the corresponding doors are located for the key card I've just picked up but the level is not overly large so any exploration shouldn't Sidetrack the player for too long La Rumble it's okay I guess I said I like verticality but I'm not sure if the implementation here lends itself as well to fun gameplay as it has in previous levels it feels like the goal here was to create a realistic environment that a real life Nukem would have to navigate if aliens came to Earth you start on the ground floor and Everywhere You Look At tall skyscraper buildings with hit scanners hanging off every Legend site if you take it slowly you shouldn't have too many issues dealing with the abundance of enemies however lack of infuriating challenge isn't necessarily a net positive overall I call the majority of this open City area boring the visuals are authentic and the huge winking billboard is certainly eye-catching that it hardly makes up for the dull gameplay also I can't ignore these trees or should I say rectangles with a tree painted on them look at these hitboxes once you rescue this Lara Croft looking character from a group of pig cops you make your way up an elevator which will take you towards the second half of the level again wasted opportunities this elevator has no enemies in it you just wait for it to come down and there's not even an assault Trooper there to keep your attention it's just oddly uneventful compared to the rest of the game I'm also not fond of the long range shootout on the balcony across the street both dukes and the enemy's weapons suck from a distance so it's hard to avoid lobbing rockets inaccurately at small groups of enforcers and assault Troopers while they attempt to inflict any kind of damage back at you this neat incidental wreckage of the building lets you jump across to the final area and the brief close quoted combat here is an improvement but hardly enough to save La Rumble thank you movie Set is a very standard level it's quite flat has the usual explosive sequences you'd expect and a few key cards to ensure some non-linearity but what elevates movie set to Great is how it Nails such a simple premise the idea of setting a level on a movie set based on the moon is genius as the flat looking textures of the era actually pull off the look perfectly there's an ambush at the beginning of the level if you run straight out into the open inside there's a room filled with crates the set for the moon landing and another set for the inside of the rocket ship each of these areas played just fine with opportunities to use just about any weapon of the player's choosing the lack of risks taken in the maps layout makes movie Set fit neatly into shrapnel city as a short coffee break level especially after La Rumble there's a pleasant Rhythm to the combat scenarios as most areas of reasonably spaced conventional shapes removing any chance of awkward vertical aiming or Monster closets that can sometimes hamper build engine games when overused you can actually skip the whole level easily if you jump and Crouch and emitter under this roller door near the beginning the secret level exit is far more difficult to find compared to the previous two episodes I'm not sure how you're supposed to know to press the letter a in this room but if you know you know I called movies at a coffee break but if you're looking for an even shorter level teardrops isn't terrible either there's some more build engine trickery going on here I'm once again not sure how it works but all I know is you drop down pipes and appear in almost identically sized Square Arenas with a common Concourse area the enemy can is high and the Sentry battle Lord is used like a common enemy but with all the shrinkra ammo collected throughout the episode it should be able to get you out of any uncomfortable fights teardrops is hardly high quality but at least an improvement on the secret levels from leader apocalypse foreign Transit is another short level featuring a specific real world location this time a looping underground train system there are only two sets of two carriages and they're not detailed in the slightest when compared to the other transport vehicles from other build engine games like blood or Shadow Warrior to be fair Duke 38 does predate both those games and the characters are moving which I'm sure made it far more problematic to design the shape and feel of the subway as a whole is more memorable than the moving train in a nutshell you are forced to jump on and off carriages to reach key cards while not running head first into larger groups of hit scanners the blue key card unlocks a rough area where initially only Pig cups block your path cross over into this dark room destroy these explosive canisters and suddenly you're being shot at by a Sentry battle Lord with another waiting up ahead as well as two assault commanders this can easily result in a cheap death if you're not prepared last stop is this pool area with another battle Lord OCTA brains and assault commanders play it slow Use Your Rocker weapons and the level is already over we've now hit the point in the episode where you should have enough ammo to use almost any weapon you want so fights become slightly less engaging without higher numbers of enemies to contend with which there aren't here Rabbit Transit doesn't do much wrong but it lacks something special to make it a classic Fahrenheit is another solid without being fantastic level I'm not entirely sure what a lot of the buildings here are meant to represent we have k-tit yep a radio broadcast building what I assume to be a fire station a Waterway and lastly a bunch of non-descript apartment buildings to pull the city look together Fahrenheit also brings back some of the variations shrapnel City started with Sentry drones return in numbers but Envy variation is superb for most of the level the blue key card opens up a shipping area and the fire station don't stop moving or these turrets will hurt you the fire station does well in ambushing you within forces and assault commanders while the shipping area has a nasty Sentry drone trap if you don't approach it cautiously next up is the radio building which takes things back to Close Quarters mostly assault Troopers before we're making our way to one of the most unwelcoming door openings of all the build engine games I knew this was coming but if you didn't good luck picking up over the surface of the water and firing either Rockets or Shrink Rays is the only Surefire way to not get splattered by this awful ball of head scan I imagine this is a lot harder without vertical aiming the whole game really even though this final room is cheap I won't let it distract from what is mostly a good level that keeps you on your toes foreign penultimate level to episode 3 Hotel Hell is the perfect encapsulation of shrapnel City tough enemies fiery ruins elevators swimming jumping monster ambushes the scale of Hotel Hell is just that bit bigger than what came before it you start off on the street where a group of pig cops jump down from the rooftops the blue key card is in an unusually tricky place to reach lying at the end of this for the time tricky sequence of platforming once inside the hotel lobby hit scan has litter the dark corners of the room but the only real problem is this room with a Sentry battle lord it's at this point where I question just how much differently I would feel about these levels if the most broken weapon of the 90s FPS the shrink ray wasn't here to bail me out yet again outside the main hotel entrance is an apartment building housing the yellow key card which is guarded by a host of enforcers and pig cops blowing them up with rockets is highly recommended now take the stairs of the elevator up to the second floor the stairs come with extra pickups and you're greeted with more hit Scanners from here you can blow up parts of the hotel to reveal enemies and the rest of the outdoor section of the level my highlight are these quaint hotel rooms and no I still haven't gotten over how cozy some of these areas can feel in the build engine the main exit to the level can be found near where the blue key card was found now that enforcers have opened the windows and practically invited Duke to exit to fight the cyclohoid emperor the secret level exit on the other hand is another one that I'm not sure how you'd find unless you're willing to try and jump through every wall in the level he'd need this waterfall which will take you to an Indiana Jones Easter egg and secret level button hidden behind a tree I guess they are secret levels for a good reason on the whole hotel hell is right up there with the highlights of Duke 3D and was well placed to be the last big challenge for the player in the game's original release freeway feels like it wasn't supposed to be a secret level but it just wasn't quite at the Quality required to be a compulsory level at the time of release it's not far off a destroyed freeway with multiple paths on offer for the player to take gets things off to a good start visually it almost looks on par with the rest of the episode especially with the indoor areas in the opposing multi-story buildings on either side of the road outside the buildings and roads are about as ugly as they are in real life so it's more just a consequence of the setting than it is a lack of detail chain explosions make for a few easily discoverable albeit fun to explore secret areas but unfortunately the map ends up feeling a little disjointed to actually play I feel a few of the Dead ends could have been tied back into the primary or secondary paths a little better something that the game excels in for the most part my biggest issue is definitely the use of enemies this is the only map with no assault captains or Troopers and it feels like one that could have used a few fodder here and there even if only to act as breadcrumbs to guide the player to the next unexplored area there are definitely some enemy setups that will punish you if you go in too hard too quickly but it tends to be large groups centering around one enemy type rather than an interesting combination having said that there's still enough here to make freeway enjoyable all right Stadium must be one of the worst iconic Maps out of the good 90s FPS games what can you say it's over as quickly as it begins you have raised to the center of an American football field and the Cyclone Emperor stands before you if you saved your Devastator ammo you can beat the cycloid emperor in roughly 15 seconds by strafing and holding the fire button the Cyclone Emperor can fire his own flurries of rockets your way which may have been tough for players stuck without a mouse but stand far enough back keep strafing and you're not going to take much damage there is a secondary attack that only activates if you get too close which fires the same projectiles as the OCTA brain except in a higher volume a handful of assault Troopers the only other threats to the player and really what are they going to do to you at this stage of the game the most interesting inclusion is the duff beer blimp that can be popped open like a pinata to drop a ridiculous amount of supplies the stadium itself wasn't given much love it looks and feels like you're on the top of an office building with no barrier to stop you falling to your death it's a shame we couldn't experience a high effort build engine Recreation of a professional sports Stadium as that could really have been a fitting send-off for the game's original release for this video we're looking at the atomic Edition which includes the fourth episode The Birth the back of the day this jerk of a boss fight was your lasting impression as the credits rolled and you were taken back to the main menu foreign ERS have been Stellar up to this point and the atomic edition's fourth episode The Birth completes this trend with it's impossible an obvious tribute to Mission Impossible this one starts off rough with turrets firing at your starting position and goes extremely light on ammo unless you find a bunch of Secrets I found myself using lots of pistol ammo in situations I'd rather not before eventually picking up most of the game's Arsenal by the end for players who were looking for more Challenge from the new episode The Enemy placement is definitely on the typical side here the layout of the IMF operations base is just the right level of complexity and size with each area feeling distinct and easy to recognize upon re-entry texture work is solid and creates yet another fantastic Recreation of a faux real-life location once you pick up a couple of key cards you'll find yourself using the cleaning suppliers closet to access the secret bolt room the most memorable part of it's impossible bar none if you rush down the vent you'll die to the laser trip mine trap that mimics the well-known movie scene learn your lesson and your face with a monster Ambush unlike any scene up to this point this provides a great platform opportunity great being an understatement lastly once gaining access to the Vault we're introduced to one of the two new enemy types of episode 4 The Protector drawing these guys take on around five shotgun shots to kill which makes them a bit of a tedious monster to fight if you're low on ammo for the non-conventional weapons they like to get in your face or Shrink you if you stand still so admittedly they do bring some much needed threat to the player when combined with other monsters locking them in place with the chain gun Cannon is a good way to keep this final area under control foreign ER can be deceptively tough it starts slow with its outdoor area surrounding the Duke Burger fast food restaurant there's an abundance of Health pickups and enough ammo to keep you afloat Recon Patrol vehicles are everywhere which are a chore to take down but the real challenge is finding the blue key card do what you do in real life order some food and your wish will be granted inside is where you can easily find yourself low in HP there are good and bad methods of reaching what appear to be blocked off areas once you've dealt with some low-level grunts you'll find yourself near a bathroom step towards it and you'll get hit by a cheap explosion in the face followed by an unperturbed enforcer if you think it's over congratulations because inside the bathroom are two protector drones one of which is hiding and can easily attack you from behind if you're not careful what I assume is the intended path to the next area requires the player to shrink themselves by firing the shrink ray directly at the mirror thereby letting it reflect backwards I don't know why that works but the scribble on the wall tries its best to give you a hint here's the catch it's a terrible idea that will possibly get you killed once you unshrink on the other side of the Rat size vent a crowd of Troopers and an enforcer will unleash their hit scan theory on you before you're even back to full size cheap visually Duke Burger is a superb build engine rendition of a Fast Food Outlet especially the front register oven warmer and meat processing sections gameplay wise the rest of the level consists of small rooms with enemy placements resembling some of the early levels of monolith's blood released a few years later in other words taking damage is almost inevitable I shouldn't forget the pig cup tanks at first glance these guys look tough and they can be in certain situations but they turn as slowly as you'd expect tanks should allowing you to jump or run behind them and get a hand on their self-destruct button a couple more protector drones and we're done I wouldn't call Duke Burger a classic but its combination of Challenge and novel decoration should be applauded foreign I'm not sure how I feel about shop and bag it's well detailed and depicts a supermarket to a tee but perhaps too well for its own good you start off outside the supermarket near a couple of storage units they store a couple of goodies but the meat and potatoes of the level are in the shop and bag store inside are aisles of mostly untouched food and low to medium tier Monsters the pig cup tanks occasionally make it difficult to reach their self-destruct buttons and protect the drones pop up every now and again to trap you in a corner thankfully the shopping bag is as highly stocked in medical supplies as you'd expect a supermarket to be making most losses of Health easy to rectify taking Each corner slightly feels like a necessity as not yet has a map been populated with so many turrets as this one you know how once you see a spider in the corner of your room you start to check every corner of every room for a little while after that only unlike real life in this level you're not being overly paranoid it's this combined with the mostly Bland layout of the shopping bag that makes this level a bit of a snooze to play there are some areas I did enjoy slightly more like the ones housing the yellow and orange key cards plus the occasional connecting air vent I just wish there was a bit more excitement than peering around wooden crates and food shelves quick shout out to self-references like this store computer being used to play Duke Nukem 3D by a past employee babe land is a level of two halves one I don't mind and one I really despise the first half is a breezy trip to a theme park you'd only ever expect from a Duke Nukem game a budget Mickey Mouse greets you at the front but unfortunately security has been replaced with pig cops it's mostly Pig cups and assault Troopers throughout the early stages the interest is in seeing what the devs came up with at each of the attraction areas I like the first one which you access to an underwater passage there are three switches that you need to press but getting to them requires jumping off moving platforms flicking all three switches will reveal the blue key card the next area is smaller and obviously took some effort to implement but I don't think it's a good design either you need to find a way to reveal the hidden prize but how to do it great question I had to look up a walk through even though I've played this level before from what I can tell there's no way of figuring out in what order you have to shoot these targets you have to shoot the second and fourth targets consecutively to reveal the orange keycard guarded by two pickups the final area however is really where my major issue with Bay Bland lies the babes of the Caribbean ride was probably Pleasant at one point but now the dock has functional cannons facing each other and bombarding either side of the water with cannonballs not to mention the Sentry battle Lords which pop up to add a sprinkling of hit scan on top pickups were dropping armor constantly on my playthrough and I'm glad they did because my patience and soon after my HP were being heavily tested by this section once you find a couple of teleporters that take you to unknown locations with enough luck you'll end up in a protector drone-filled Gauntlet which rewards survivors with the exit just be glad it's over I'm not sure if I had the gaming equivalent of beer goggles after babe land but I consider pigstyles superb return to form the enemy variety is back the placements of them are challenging and the level detailing is at the usual standard this time the setting is a police station and courtroom that are attached to each other I'm impressed by the wide range of spaces that pigsty offers offices and holding cells in particular are used well to give both enemy and player options to hide or pop out of cover from my favorite has to be the interrogation room which features one-sided indestructible glass Keys you find will sometimes open up multiple doors instead of one which while not a new idea is executed superbly and prevents the need to backtrack over the same paths over and over again the last of the three keys takes you to the courtroom where a large fight awaits fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective the toughest enemies like to come out and fight you one on one which eliminates most of the difficulty it's a good example of why ambushes tend to work so much better in Old FPS games when compared to fights where the player enters a packed room of waiting enemies the only way to get the AI to work together is to make sure they all start firing at the player at the same time that can't happen if the player can choose to leave the fight as soon as it starts my stance if this is a bit of a missed opportunity but not anything drastic the normal exit is in the nearby Jury Room where jury members have been hanged the secret exit is behind this portrait which is more at my level of puzzle solving than the target shooting from the previous level overall I'm a fan foreign wow a secret level that obviously took a lot of effort to make Area 51 is one of the few Duke 3D levels when I start to lose my sense of direction after a while nevertheless Area 51 has a lot going for it and it's one of the toughest levels in the game that isn't reliant on a gimmick there's a fight you're teleported to near the start of the level where you're immediately being shot at by a dozen or so enemies something that the game really takes enough of a risk to do it forces you to move like you're playing Deathmatch unlike most of the single player experience which typically rewards slow peaking of Corners once you're inside the base is where things can get a little confusing at least for a simpleton like myself a substantial amount of rooms can look and feel quite samey though I do really enjoy the combat encounters that await in each one I really like the look of what I think is a rocket launching chamber which is shielded off by force fields you can teleport into the inside of it which is a nice touch though I think just a little more interactivity would have been the cherry on top in terms of downsides the orange keycard requires the player to stand on a platform in a precise spot which I don't think is a great idea for anything that's not a secret area I also cannot stand this room with the hidden teleporting assault commanders it reminds me of cyber din from final Doom plutonia except this setup feels even less Fair on the player as the assault command is telegraphing of his attacks is visual only meaning the player has no way of preparing to dodge and more importantly fire back the arch files in Doom by comparison stand still and engulf the player in harmless Flames before any damage is dealt giving the player a chance to break the line of sight lastly I have to complain about the exit to the level a double code matching sequence to allow for Rockets to be launched this could be me missing something but I have no idea how the player is supposed to guess this combination in a reasonable length of time it was quicker for me to look the code up online than actually figure it out on my own I didn't mean to diss this level as much as I have everything I didn't mention is pretty good stuff and I suppose the confusing elements at least match the theme of area 51. foreign [Music] tries to make a mail processing facility fund and certainly leaves its stamp on any memories he may have of the birth it's a pretty standard Affair for the most part protector drones are in abundance and do slow down the gameplay a little unless you can Corner them with explosive weapons aside from that the pattern of gameplay is the usual Corner peaking to check the pig cups and enforcers traversing the level is creatively done by crawling through post shoots which are filled to the brim with protozoid slimers I've never lost so much health to these things thanks to how blindsided you are when you enter each shoot where going personal leaves its Mark is in its set piece near the end of the facility you'll find your way to a sandbagged dead end filled with supplies and almost instantly you'll be ambushed by Insane numbers of enemies you have two explosive traps that can toggle via switches that can only be used once each if you can time the setting off of those explosions well the feeling of satisfaction will be close to the greatest you'll experience throughout the whole game otherwise Hill RPG and Devastator ammo unless enemies are getting too close the footage I hope speaks for itself oh tidy up the final few enemies waiting around the corner and the exit is yours XXX Stacy is a level that I always see discussed as one of the worst of episode 4 but it's hardly terrible it's just average you start off in an adult film studio but most of the level takes place in pretty nondescript buildings nearby the studio is filled with uh what you'd expect from a Duke Nukem game that features an adult film studio after dealing with a couple of handfuls of enemies you're triggering an explosion and spending your time elsewhere thanks to the blue key card from this point onwards the level design feels a bit like a user map there are some neat ideas like raising the water level to gain access to a high open window But the rooms themselves feel like they were designed by amateurs a room crammed with Troopers is a fun excuse to get out the pipe bomb and forces a slightly less fun excuse but doing the same trick with protector drones is just low effort level details in the second half are a little Bland and dark which don't do much to help the already questionable enemy placements the final Outdoor Room did teach me the pickup tanks have way more Health than they should but not forced to self-destruct but that feels like giving this level way too much credit foreign map if you know what you're doing the greatest risks of death come in the form of explosion sequences that require the player to move to a particular safe Zone where the explosions don't spread to I recall this level being frustrating back in the day but I'm willing to pin a fair bit of that experience on unreasonable levels of user error whilst recording this footage I managed to not die once despite having only played the birth once to completion previously in between these explosion sequences are some top tier Close Quarters encounters most fights are set up so the player only fights one or occasionally two enemy types but the layout of the rooms allows for each encana to play out interestingly The Protector drone ambushes especially allow for some really enjoyable opportunities for the player to outplay the AI you can stay completely hidden from at least one projector drone in this tight room to make a sticky situation a breeze with some luck in this follow-up trap you can let yourself be closed off from the two protector drones and he themselves gets squished as they Scamper after you visually this generator room is my personal highlight of critical mass the slowly pulsing light on the perimeter of the otherwise dark circular room brings back some of that episode 2 atmosphere which serves as a great palette cleanser from there it's a matter of taking out a few more protector drones and enforcers before withstanding one last explosion sequence to reveal the exit foreign derelict the penultimate and possibly most polarizing level in Duke Nukem 3D derelict was the longest level I played throughout my playthrough and sadly most of my time was spent in confusion or boredom Duke starts off in the ocean with a heavily guarded ship lying ahead how to border is the first element to solve and once again this may just be my own stupidity or perhaps my brightness settings but it took me far too long to figure out how to do it if you don't want to cheese it with leftover Jetpack from previous levels you're supposed to let this crane pick you up however when I initially went to this colored patch of water I was struck by lightning which I thought implied that this orange Square was placed a highlight a hazard nope this is where you're meant to go after all on the deck are a small number of enemies but most notably hidden turrets and Troopers behind two fake Windows these serve a purpose by showing the player how to get inside once inside it's a lot of tight corridors packed full with assault Troopers and captains initially this is a lot of fun tearing through such higher quantities of fodder with a full arsenal but it does outstay its welcome eventually you'll find the blue key card and start to encounter assault commanders and protector drones which is a theme that will continue for the remainder of derelict The Protector drones have already felt overused before this level and even within this one they pop up too often for my liking levels stopping their tracks when too many of these guys show up I can't forget this turret trap either which I guess is one of the few ideas that hadn't been tried yet Sentry battle Lords make the odd appearance but can usually be isolated and shrunk bizarrely pickups and enforcers are nowhere to be found on the ship at all a few of each would have helped break up the monotony of the combat I will say that the different areas of the ship feel distinct and based on my entirely lacking knowledge of ships recreate the different functions that a huge ship typically provides another area where you may find yourself unsure of how to proceed is this new cage Zone which is accessible after completing a brief crane section protective boots are placed directly next to the new kids which do suggest this is the correct way to progress but the rate at which the protective boots deteriorate feels short by The Game's standards considering the ground that needs to be covered penultimate levels are usually where you'd expect the most challenge so I guess it's appropriate timing shortly after is this pool of sludge with a handful of OCTA brains waiting to have the Devastator Unleashed on them this is the only area in the level that looked distractingly ugly can you even call this a liquid texture once you deal with the OCTA brains and swim around a bit you'll stumble upon the exit which actually feels quite abrupt despite derelict's longer length I think a more substantial combat encounter was needed here to really wet the appetite for the upcoming final level derelicts really does try to make an impression and I doubt players will forget the experience I'm just not sure the majority remember it fondly finally the last level of episode 4 the queen undoubtedly the best boss level in the game the queen tasks the player with opening up the entrance to the Queen's Lair a monster residing underwater resembling a large Blue protector drone to do so it requires unlocking two almost identical areas and activating one switch in each hidden behind key cards there is a lot of shooting required in order to reach each key card the long strip in the middle of the map includes two separate switch puzzles that unlock the two areas housing the keycards enforcers assault Troopers and protector drones stand in your way but they're no problem by this point in the game initially only one switch puzzle is available which unlocks the blue key card area as I mentioned the k-cod areas mirror each other except for the underwater puzzles that the player must solve to access the blue and orange key cards assault Troopers and enforcers are everywhere as soon as you enter the Outer Perimeter sections in the primary water pools are several OCTA brains that are easily accounted for with the Devastator in the inner rooms are the most difficult parts of the level aside from the queen herself you have to breach the water surface and quickly avoid both hit scan projectile and melee attacks from enforcers Troopers and protector drones respectively as long as you keep moving and the protector drones don't get in your face you should be set feel free to use all that RPG and Devastator ammo you've been collecting this level is practically throwing it at you these inner rooms contain an even smaller underwater room which is home to two switches that need to be pressed now is when the keycard puzzle sections become a locked in the nearby larger water pool first puzzle involves two crushing pillars that need to be avoided by pressing buttons placed on the wall the second puzzle simply replaces the pillars with rotating cogs as seen from earlier episodes pressing all the buttons will allow access to the key cards for each area these puzzles speak for themselves in the gameplay footage but honestly I wouldn't want them to be any more complex than this their job is to break up the Carnage and give the player a breather which they do just fine lastly the player must take the key cards they've just retrieved back inside the inner rooms and insert them into the keycard wall slots guarded by a Sentry battle Lord in the blue key card area there's now uncovered switch will open the switch puzzle to unlock the orange keycard area as well as one half of the entrance to the Queen's Lair the orange keycard area switch will open the other half while giving the player the yellow keycard which gives entry to the purple sludge tube leading to the layers entrance I realize this all sounds convoluted when spelled out in words but really it's quite intuitive to play usually I'm a massive fan of symmetry and level design but I have to admit that this much of it brings down my enjoyment of this level significantly once you realize the enemy placements and structures are identical the second keycard area becomes far less interesting if the same high action combat could have been squeezed into a similarly sized but different layout I'd hold the lead up to the queen in Far higher regard it's a shame because the pacing of the build up feels spot on otherwise now for the fight against the queen it's thankfully far better than the three boss fights in the original episodes the queen is surrounded by protector drones and continues to give birth to more throughout the fight the protector drones will chase after you and impede your rockets that you'll inevitably be firing in the Queen's Direction the queen herself attacks with an electric shock that will always hit you as long as you're underwater the damage this attack does however is pitiful thanks to the amount of health and armor that you've likely entered her Lair with the protected drones are a nuisance and aren't worth focusing your fire on unless you have to strafe and swim up and down to avoid damage empty your Devastator switch the RPG and the queen eventually goes down is the fight good for a boss in a build engine game I guess it is that's not a very high bar but it is the fairest one is it a classic boss fight in the history of video games definitely not it's good enough for the type of game that Duke Nukem 3D is and is a more fitting end than the cycloid emperor and that's the main thing foreign have any thoughts on my rankings kindly let me know which ones I got right and wrong if you have any other FPS games you'd like me to give rankings on feel free to leave a comment and I'll consider it for the next video whenever I get the time or motivation to make it thanks for watching

Channel: ROTT Guy

Views: 28,460

Keywords: duke nukem, 3d, all, 40, atomic, levels, ranked, from, best, to, worst, 10, boomer shooter, hollywood, la meltdown, lunar apocalypse, edition, top, shrapnel city

Id: Y8AuMwtQLgw

Length: 68min 21sec (4101 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 28 2023